Automated, digital gov’t payroll system up for pilot-testing

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on Tuesday announced that a fully automated and digitized National Payroll System (NPS) will be pilot-tested in select agencies at the end of the year to reform the existing payroll system of the government.

In a statement, the agency said that the administration’s Public Financial Management (PFM) Committee has been tasked to develop the centralizing software for the NPS.

“As a fully automated and digitized system, the NPS will play a central role in ensuring greater efficiency, transparency, and accountability in the government’s human resource processes,” Budget and Management Secretary Florencio Abad said.

Abad added that as the system will be completely electronic, all payroll-related activities will be implemented more quickly and with better accuracy whether it is about the distribution of monthly salaries due to government workers, or the regular monthly remittances that are made out to employees’ social security and health insurance accounts.

Furthermore, the DBM noted that te NPS is also a component of the larger Government Human Resource Information System (GHRIS), which will harmonize and unify all human resource management operations in government, from the recruitment phase all the way to retirement. Completion of the GHRIS is expected in the second quarter of 2014.

The agency explained that under the reformed and digitized payroll system, agencies will continue to have discretion over their respective human resource and personnel requirements.

This will be expressed in a Monthly Cash Plan relating to Personnel Services that will be submitted to the Bureau of Treasury (BTr), which will in turn provide a payment file to the proper bank for the timely processing of employee salaries.

According to the DBM, agencies will be asked to establish Automated Teller Machine (ATM) payroll accounts for all their employees to allow for the electronic distribution of monthly salaries.

Government servicing banks—such as Land Bank and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP)—will be prioritized, although other banks may also be proposed should Land Bank or DBP ATMs be unavailable for use in a particular area.

Besides facilitating the prompt release of salaries and benefits to government workers, the NPS will also ensure the timely remittance of withholding fees to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Government Service Insurance System, Pag-ibig Fund, and PhilHealth.